SUBMITTED NEWS RELEASE
RENO, Nev. – The Nevada Humanities Board of Trustees will welcome Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to present the 2011 Judith Winzeler Award for Excellence in the Humanities and to lead a roundtable discussion exploring civility in sports and politics. The event will take place at the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City, Thursday, March 31.
The moderated discussion, entitled In the Arena: A Conversation About Politics, Sportsmanship, and Civility, will feature Leach, Nevada State Assemblyman Jason Frierson, University of Nevada, Reno President Emeritus Joe Crowley, and University of Nevada, Reno Director of Athletics Cary Groth.
The event will be held in the Nevada Room annex at the Governor’s Mansion, 606 Mountain St., Carson City, Nev. A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. and the award ceremony and roundtable discussion will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. The event is open to the public, but space is limited and RSVPs are required. To RSVP, contact Mary Toleno by March 28, 2011, at [email protected] or call 775-784-6587.
Nevada is the 43rd stop on Leach’s 50-state Civility Tour. The goal of the chairman’s tour is to affect the tone of political discourse, both in this country and globally. The political atmosphere is, according to Leach, “bordering on a civility crisis at home and a civilization crisis abroad. With changes in communications technology, we’re seeing that hate messages and increasingly extremist and intolerant political discourse can spread instantly, provoking a rancorous and at times dangerous environment. Respect for different views, and the people expressing them, is central to the humanities and to a civilized society.”
“The ability to listen and understand is essential for maintaining a vibrant democracy in this country,” said Christina Barr, executive director of Nevada Humanities. “Chairman Leach’s tour is perfectly timed to help all of us re-examine how we respond to viewpoints that differ from our own.”
Jim Leach is the ninth chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Prior to his appointment by President Obama, Leach was on the faculty of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and interim director of the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Before joining academia, Leach served 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing southeastern Iowa.
The 2011 Judith Winzeler Award for Excellence in the Humanities will be presented to Wally Cuchine of Eureka, Nev., and to Sundance Bookstore of Reno, Nev. The award recognizes the honorees’ outstanding and lasting contributions to strengthening and enhancing the lives of Nevadans using the tools of the humanities.
For more information about Nevada Humanities and the upcoming roundtable discussion with Jim Leach, contact Christina Barr, executive director of Nevada Humanities, at [email protected] or call 775-784-6587.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.neh.gov .
Nevada Humanities is Nevada’s nonprofit council affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With offices in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada Humanities creates public programs and supports public projects statewide that define the Nevada experience, feature local culture and heritage, and facilitate the exploration of issues that matter to Nevadans and their communities. For more information visit http://www.nevadahumanities.org and http://www.onlinenevada.org .
